Love not war?!

We'd spoken to Ide about the bowers of Satin and Spotted Bowerbirds. She told us of a bower built on the fence-line of a house we would pass on the way out of town, so we made a point of stopping.

We were so glad we did!   This fellow had a similar colour scheme to the guy at the fossicking area but obviously had a better quality of loot because of living in town. He had many more nails and screws - and quite a lot of toy soldiers, at least 20 or 30!  We spotted three teaspoons too and wondered how he managed to carry them!

There was much discussion in the car just after leaving as we speculated about his toy soldier collection - and how he might have transported the spoons!

Spot the bower ...

Nick found something good in the fossicking area today.

No, not opal!

This a Spotted Bowerbird's bower. The shape of the bower is very similar to that of the Satin Bowerbird but the colour scheme and decoration differs.


When we still lived on the Central Coast of New South Wales, we would often camp in the Watagan forest.  Satin Bowerbirds would visit regularly and one had a bower near our usual campsite, decorated with all kinds of blue items.

This bower was very interesting.  There was a lot of broken glass and I had to be careful to avoid it when kneeling to take photos.

The ground at the perimeter of the bower had a few coloured hair and cable ties, a broken brakelight, some small fruits - and lots of broken glass.

The path to the bower (and bower itself) was lined with a large collection of white and white-ish stones.  A couple looked as if they had been taken from someone's garden.

There were tightly-crumpled pieces of used aluminium foil, many bolts, some nails, drink-can ring-pulls, marbles and coloured glass stones, metal shade-cloth staples, very worn plastic bottle caps and knobs - as well as a few shells.

We were very impressed by the quantity and quality of the collection - and took Vaughan after school so he could have a look also.  Hopefully the bird's intended female audience will be similarly taken with his artistic endeavours!

Feelin' Blue? (8-10 September)

7-year fully-fledged splendour!

We often see a few Satin Bowerbirds when camping in the Watagans.  On this visit we noticed one of the males had a new bower, still only a few steps from the road and easily visible on our walks to and from the loo.

I did a sneak one afternoon and stood for a while watching him weave more bits.  He had a very impressive collection of bottle caps and a few blue feathers also. (On one of our previous camping trips I had caught a glimpse of the male bower bird in flight, carrying off blue treasure)! Vaughan found some blue ribbon near our tent and wanted to take it over for the bower but we said the bird didn't need any decorating assistance!

Vaughan came back from a bike-ride the next day to see if the ribbon was still near the tent, cos he had seen a bit at the bower.  He was very chuffed when he realised the bowerbird had picked up the piece he had wanted it to have!

The bower bird seemed a lot more bold than on previous visits.  He actually came down when the currawongs were scrabbling for bread and biscuit pieces.  His family were more cautious but we caught glimpses of several "green birds" also.

The females and juveniles have similar plumage - the males take seven years to acquire their beautiful glossy blue-black feathers.  You can read more about them here and listen to a short sound file of their call.  On one of our earliest forest trips, Erin's cockatiels came camping with us.  By the end of the stay, the male cockatiel could do a very good bowerbird imitation!